Monkey pox made its return to Africa in the form of a new variant last August. Health organizations quickly warned of the risks of spread.
A return that was feared. In 2024, monkeypox returned to the African continent in a new variant. The World Health Organization (WHO) triggered its highest level of alert last August regarding the spread of the virus. Where is the situation in Europe?
Recent months have seen the appearance of a new variant of monkeypox, which has caused a resurgence of the virus in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A fatal variant according to health authorities since the host of the virus died in 3.6% of cases.
This new form has since spread to Europe. On October 30, the British Health Security Agency announced that it had discovered a first case in London, while patients were detected in Germany and Sweden.
Last August, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control advised maintaining a high level of planning for their detection preparedness against this virus in order to combat the spread.
Sporadic cases
So far we are only talking about sporadic cases. Currently, Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician, assures that “although the frequency of epidemic outbreaks of the Mpox virus has steadily increased in recent years, we should not panic.”
For its part, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control judges the overall risk for the general population to be “low”.
Belgium
